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Three To Go
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Business New Haven
12/10/2001
By: Mimi Houston
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Whether you're buying your first home or looking to shed those prematurely accumulated holiday pounds, people in the technology industry in and around greater New Haven are doing their share to make all our lives a little bit easier. Today's most exciting and innovative businesses often developed from that fateful line, ”Wouldn't it be great if…”
Working Out with the Jetsons
Back in the early 1990s, Keith Camhi was working out at his local gym. An avid health and fitness buff, Camhi didn't leave his technology credentials at the door.
“I just thought, 'There's got to be a better way to do this than carrying around workout cards and golf pencils,'” says Camhi, co-founder and CEO of Fitlinxx.com, in Stamford.
Camhi paired his longtime devotion to fitness with his computer technology training and developed a one-of-a-kind program that allows clients to take an active and more informed role in their workouts.
“Our product is really an electronic personal trainer,” explains Camhi. “Whatever workout machine you are using, you have a computer screen that tells you everything you need to know. It counts your reps, tells you to slow down if you're moving too fast, how much weight you should be lifting - everything a real personal trainer would do.”
Health clubs that - use Fitlinxx have their existing machines retrofitted with the computerized technology needed. Employees of the club spend just a few days in training and the system is typically up and running.
Clients punch in a personal identification number (PIN) to access their own personal workout records and data. Trainers in the gyms that use Fitlinxx.com have access to users' charts and can review them and make necessary comments, send encouraging messages, even forward articles that may be of interest to the exerciser. It's a little like working out with the Jetsons, and studies show those who use it tend to stick with their fitness programs longer.
“Fifty percent of all health-club members don't make it to the six-month mark,” says Camhi. “That's a big business problem for the fitness industry. The Fitlinxx program has been shown to cut this number by half. That's a substantial economic return.”
Beyond that, Camhi says he feels good knowing he's helping people stick with their fitness goals.
“In the beginning, people may need a lot of hand-holding,” he explains. “You need to know how to use the machines. If you've got bad form you wont see the results you're looking for. Even worse, you could get hurt.”
Camhi says clients who use the Fitlinxx system are motivated by the visible results available to them on screen. With the touch of a button you can chart your weight loss, strength and flexibility gains and more. The system is so comprehensive that even hospitals have signed their rehabilitation patients onto it.
“We're in a number of hospitals nationwide,” says Camhi. “We've developed a partnership with HealthSouth, the biggest provider of rehabilitation in the country.”
Camhi believes his company is helping to give rehabilitation patients the opportunity to fully recover - and then some.
“It's pretty common for insurance to not cover you until you get back your full strength,” he laments. “With Fitlinxx you can gracefully transfer your workout from rehabilitation to a participating fitness center. You continue with the program that was set up for you by your therapist.”
Camhi says the company's technology caught on fast after an introductory trial period with the New York Knicks.
“They really liked it,” he laughs, “but the professional sports arena is really not our market. We're really targeted at helping people make fitness succeed in their lives.”
And Fitlinxx' success rolls right along with that of its users.
“The fitness industry really is not deeply impacted by the economy,” he says. “People still keep up their health-club memberships. The trends for fitness now are among the aging baby-boomers and seniors who are engaging in fitness. They need the tools to help them succeed. That's where we see a bright future for our product. It's definitely a growing market, and beginners are a key to that market - that's where our product fits in.”
Help for Homebuyers
First-time homebuyers often find themselves overwhelmed in the midst of the euphoria that comes with owning your own little piece of the world. So many things to think about - from mortgages to refrigerators - can put a damper on an exciting time.
William Raveis, founder and president of William Raveis Realtors, recognized that this was a financially and emotionally difficult time, and addressed it in today's technological terms with the founding, in 1999, of Homelink Services Inc. Presently, there are 125 real estate companies using Homelink across the country.
“When you sign an agreement to purchase a home through William Raveis Realty,” explains John D'Arco, assistant director of marketing and public relations for Homelink, “within 24 hours you'll get a call from our national call center based in Shelton asking if you'd like help finding a mortgage company. When you're ten days away from your closing, you'll get a call asking if you need a moving company.
“We work with local vendors like lawyers and tradespeople like plumbers and electricians - though customers are free to choose whomever they want to,” adds D'Arco. “There is no exclusivity; there is always choice.”
Homelink connects users to companies across the nation that offer products and services covering every conceivable need that homebuyers encounter.
“If you've ever used a national moving company, you're familiar with the mountains of forms you have to fill out - we help you through all that,” continues D'Arco. “There are so many details to plan ”
“We can even help you find someone to walk your dog. Our service is very well-received. A lot of the companies we work with have branded themselves with us, and now use the Homelink logo.
“Every homebuyer gets a customer portfolio,” he states. “It's a Web-based product that is password-protected. They can track any service and product they've requested. They can even track how much money they've spent, what products they've bought.”
Homelink buyers can also save dollars on whatever they do buy for their homes.
“They can definitely save on certain products [though] it's not across the board,” D'Arco continues. “G.E., for instance, offers Homelink customers big discounts on its appliances.”
Those savings are appreciated by Homelink customers, but D'Arco says they value another offering even more.
“Beyond saving money, it's the convenience of having a person to call who knows what's going on and has helped others move that our customers really like.”
That person is a “personal move coordinator” who, D'Arco says, “works with them through every step. ”
And after moving day has come and gone?
“Homelink customers are members for life,” says D'Arco. “We have an 800 number they can always call. If, for example, five years down the road your washer or dryer breaks down, use your 800 number to get it repaired or get a new one.
Homelink is also there for customers if the time ever comes when they want to sell their home.
“Just call the 800 number,” assures D'Arco. With a recent $29 million in funding, Homelink Services, Inc. seems to have laid out a permanent welcome mat.
More than Friendly Skies
In 1999, Peggy Lee, owner of Lee Travel, was struck with the seemingly endless ways the Internet could help travelers - specifically, business travelers on their way to conventions and seminars. She created a software package to support her ideas, and after two rounds of funding, the company - bthere.com - has a $30 million ticket to a successful destination.
“b-there.com helps with every single aspect of event planning,” says Christine Berthet, CEO. “It's a very powerful tool that is truly automating the life of event planners. At any time you can access a list of attendees, send out invitations, advertise through e-marketing. Attendees can register and pay online for all their seminars, book their hotel and their airline tickets - all at a discounted rate, print out their confirmations, and they're set to go. And all this is happening in real time. It really gives the planner complete control over everything.
“The software has a report-writer aspect,” explains Berthet, “that retrieves information from a database on the Web - a very powerful database - so you can print any spreadsheet you want.
“You can track which seminars are selling, which are sold out, who is attending - even notify each attendee of any change of schedule.”
As impressive as its capabilities are, Berthet says the program is very user-friendly as well.
“It's actually very easy to use,” she informs. “and you can really customize it. You can go in depth with it and adopt the tool for your whole company, or use it very simply.”
b-there.com provides training that encompasses a company's particular needs.
The software supports meetings and conventions of any size - from 20 people to more than 50,000. “It requires about two to three hours of training for the more simple functions,” explains Berthet. “But because the tool is so powerful it can take a few days of training to really learn it.”
However one puts it to use, Berthet says customers can count on saving dollars that would have been spent on preparing for conventions in the traditional way.
“You save money in all sorts of ways,” she states. “Before this you would have to pay for printing costs, mailing, hiring temporary help to man your call center. Now it's all done online.”
The savings can be huge, even to a huge company. b-there.com helped Nortel save $1.4 million on a convention it recently held. A lot of other big names have signed on for the service as well.
“Right now we are working with the top 50 companies in the country,” Berthet says, “from Proctor & Gamble, Ernst & Young, AT&T,” to name a few.
Berthet says her company's software is now industry standard at American Express, which houses a corporate travel division that is worldwide.
“We've got very knowledgeable people,” she states. “A large proportion of them come from the event and travel industries, so we truly are a complete service company.”
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